Turn your PC into a virtual telescope with Microsoft Research WorldWide Telescope Aphelion Release for Windows and Mac OS X.
This freeware web 2.0 application is a rich visualization environment that functions as a virtual telescope. It brings together imagery from the best ground- and space-based telescopes to enable seamless, guided explorations of the universe. WorldWide Telescope, created with Microsoft’s high-performance Visual Experience Engine, enables seamless panning and zooming across the night sky blending terabytes of images, data and stories from multiple sources over the Internet into a media-rich, immersive experience.
WorldWide Telescope requires .NET Framework 2.0 and it is recommended not running other applications which use .NET at the same time.
Minimum system requirements (For PC):
- Microsoft® XP SP2 (minimum), Windows® Vista® (recommended)
- PC with Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 2 gigahertz (GHz) or faster, recommended
- 1 gigabyte (GB) of RAM; 2 GB RAM recommended
- 3D accelerated card with 128 megabytes (MB) RAM; discrete graphics card with dedicated 256-MB VRAM recommended for higher performance
- 1 GB of available hard disk space; 10 GB recommended for off-line features and higher performance browsing
- XGA (1024 x 768) or higher resolution monitor
- Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing and scrolling device
- Microsoft® DirectX® version 9.0c and .NET Framework 2.0
- Required for some features; Internet connection at 56 Kbps or higher through either an Internet service provider (ISP) or a network.